Rosalie Moller

The sister ship of the Thistlegorm makes a challenging dive for those who have the skill and experience. Peter Collings, a member of the expedition that discovered the Rosalie Moller, takes us on a pictorial tour of the wreck…

Beginning life in a Glasgow shipyard in 1910, the 3,963 tonne, 115m-long Rosalie Moller was originally named the Francis. In 1931 she was sold to the Reederei Moller line of Scandinavia and re-registered in Shanghai under the British flag. Until 1938 she operated along the east coast of China working out of Shanghai, until being recalled to Liverpool to undertake collier duties, delivering 4,500 tonnes of coal to Royal Navy.

When war broke out she made several successful trips to Gibraltar, then left Britain bound for Alexandria via the Cape of Good Hope. With stops at Durban and Aden en route, she finally entered the Straits of Gubal, in the Red Sea, and was ordered to anchorage H – an area between Quisum and Gubal Islands – to await instructions.

In the early hours of 8 October 1941, German bombers attacked her, two days after the sinking of another famous Second World War wreck, the Thistlegorm. Two bombs exploded in the Number Four hold, causing heavy damage to the starboard quarter. The Rosalie Moller filled with water and quickly sank with the loss of two lives.

A tour of the wreck
The Rosalie Moller now lies on a sandy, muddy bottom with her Titanic-like bow facing north. Both masts stand proud and straight, and are flanked with winches. There are the traditional lamp and paint rooms, but access to the crew’s quarters has still not been discovered. Glassfish fill the bridge, and the cross bearers and mast bases make superb photo studios. Officers’ and engineers’ rooms, the dispensary and a doctor’s room are all on the deck level, with the captain’s quarters and dining room above. Brass fittings, lamps and porthole drip trays lie buried in the silt, which has accumulated over the years due to the lack of current.

Access is easy as all the timber has rotted away, although slabs of concrete serving as armoured plating hang precariously above.
The single funnel still has the steam whistle in place but it has sadly, toppled over. The lifeboat davits are swung out. A deck galley sits proud, complete with 16 portholes in its ventilators and there are storerooms with several axles within. The engine room at 46m is totally intact and also easily accessible with gauges still in place. The damage to the Rosalie Moller’s starboard quarter is evident but the stern is intact and the steering assembly plain to see. Large shoals of fish including tuna, jacks and snapper can be found around the wreck, and corals have encrusted many of the surfaces. Because of the limited bottom time, it takes several dives to fully appreciate this wreck and great care must be taken due to the depth and sometimes reduced visibility. Good planning and surface support is required for this challenging dive.

In the seven years since the wreck was found I have seen very few other dive boats visiting the site, although some of the Rosalie Moller’s treasures have been removed. One amateur diver moved the maker’s plate ‘for safe-keeping and for positive identification’. Sadly the ship’s docking telegraph, which once stood proud on her stern has also been removed.The extra skills and experience needed to dive this wreck, plus the necessity of a highly skilled crew, should help keep this beautiful lady safe from the desecration of any thoughtless divers. Long may she rest in one piece.

The discovery
When the location of the Thistlegorm was made public knowledge, three years after her re-discovery, some of the skippers that I regularly go on trips with kept insisting that she had a sister ship close by. Several possibilities were suggested and then ruled out, before a check on Second World War casualties unearthed a contender – the Rosalie Moller. She had been sunk only a few days after the Thistlegorm and was part of the same convoy bombed by German aircraft.

Excitement at the possibility of finding the Thistlegorm’s sister ship turned to disappointment when records showed that the Rosalie Moller
had already been salvaged. However, scrutinizing the HMSO publication British vessels lost at sea 1939–45, a scant entry appeared for the Rosalie Moller ‘bombed at anchorage H’. This was the vital clue that led us to her location. A team of divers was put together in 1993 and our expedition began.
When we eventually got started, we spent two days diving on every lump of sea bed that looked remotely like a wreck until we ‘got lucky’.

Our first and unforgettable view was the huge shoal of jacks circling the upright mast with its light still in place at 18m. Descending the foremast we got our bearings and set off to dive what seemed to be a virgin wreck. A quick descent into the holds revealed its cargo – coal. At the bow, even the flagstaff still stood proud and all of the handrails – though covered in sponge – remained totally intact, almost a carbon copy of the Thistlegorm in 1990.
Fish filled every space – it was obvious they had never encountered divers before – with their behaviour totally different to that of the fish on the heavily dived reefs of the Sinai Peninsula. Most of the wooden decking was gone, making the journey from room to room easy, and our way was only barred by the countless shoals of silversides, glassy sweepers, big eyes and groupers. Beyond, the wreck’s single tall vertical funnel stood proud – the letter ‘M’ plain to see. The steam whistle shone red and orange under the beam of our torches.

In the engine room, portholes lay everywhere. A large piece of metal had flattened the skylight (we later worked out that this metal was from the bomb-damaged area just aft and to starboard). The sight before us was amazing: the triple-expansion engine, catwalks and gauges were still as they were when the ship had sunk. Gliding down the stairwells deeper into the wreck’s heart we found what we needed to solve the mystery.

Here was the very first clue as to the wreck’s real identity; its maker’s plate, reading ‘Barclay and Curle & Co, Glasgow 1910’. Four floors down in the engine room, at 46m with bottom time running out, we ascended out to the surface. Through the shoals of fish we could see beyond the aft hold, the foul-weather awning framework and the steering gear, typical of the ship’s day.

Back on board, we reviewed our research. Yes, it was an old steamship, built in Glasgow, 1910. The M was a major clue, as was the coal. In spite of the fact that records said she had already been salvaged I was convinced we had found the Rosalie Moller. Our next dive was to give us the answer. The smaller of two bells was found first, the letters R-A-N-C could still be made out. But it was the second and larger bell which confirmed our discovery. Although more difficult to locate and inspect, the bell gave us the Rosalie Moller’s name at birth – ‘Francis’.